Felipe Dulzaides, “A Road with Toilet Paper,” 20-40c print, 2001

Felipe Dulzaides and New Langton Arts are collaborating to create “Double Take, A Billboard Project,” a new public artwork that features the production and presentation of eight site-specific artworks displayed throughout the Bay Area. With the help of city developer David Prowler, Dulzaides will scout out locations and select particular features of the chosen sites on which to focus. He will then use photography to draw viewers’ attention to an aspect of each site that will be translated directly onto a billboard.

The artist notes that “Double Take” refers to the moment when a viewer will realize that he or she is seeing an image in “double.” The artist seeks to “stimulate a subtle, aesthetic experience by subverting the billboard’s assumed intention and focusing on the viewer’s immediate reality.” Image sources may include architectural details, incidental objects, and overlooked particulars of the sites, captured and recreated in a large-scale, highly-visible format.

The billboards will be produced and installed over the course of one year, with each one on display for a minimum of one month. A map and web page will enhance the public’s experience of the project. The last billboard will be displayed in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of New Langton Arts, and New Langton will produce a catalog documenting the project with an essay by Ben Ehrenreich.

Visual artist Felipe Dulzaides’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Centro Cultural de España in Havana, Cuba, and Buro Spors in Berlin, Germany among others. He was a 2003 artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, a 2002 recipient of an Artadia Award, and recipient of the 2001 Cintas Fellowship. Originally from Cuba, he currently lives and works in San Francisco.

Felipe Dulzaides and David Prowler will collaborate to scout sites, conceptualize, design, and document each billboard. Prowler has 30 years of experience combining art and urban development and has served as Director of the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development. In that capacity he was Project Manager for both Pacific Bell Ballpark and the 303-acre Mission Bay development. Prowler is interested in drawing attention to the “invisible commonplace,” a theme of his book, A Telegram from Marcel Duchamp (Readymade Press, 1990).

The mission of collaborator New Langton Arts is to cultivate experimental and innovative contemporary artworks in visual and media arts, music, performance, literature, and interdisciplinary projects while encouraging broad public appreciation and access to the art of our times. It achieves its mission by providing support to contemporary artists from diverse economic, social, and cultural backgrounds through exhibitions, performance, readings, new works commissions, awards and publications. Audiences benefit through direct experience of Langton’s artist projects with the assistance of education, outreach, and audience development programs. With “Double Take,” Langton continues its history of producing highly conceptual public artworks. Langton will work closely with Dulzaides on all aspects of “Double Take,” serving as a producer and facilitator, promoting the work, and publishing the catalogue.

Felipe Dulzaides

Fellowships, Awards, and Residency Programs

• Artist-in-Residence, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California
• Recipient, Artadia Award, New York, New York (2002)
• New Langton Arts Bay Area Award Show, San Francisco, California (2002)
• Cintas Fellowship, New York (2001-02)

Exhibitions

• “White Noise,” Red Cat, Los Angeles, California (2004)
• “Time on my Hand,” Lizabeth Oliveria Gallery, Los Angeles, California (2004)
• “Invitación, Fototeca, Havana Cuba (2004)
• “Busted: New Works by Robin Rhode and Felipe Dulzaides,” New Langton Arts, San Francisco, California (2004)
• “Lineaments of Gratified Desire,” Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, California (2004)
• “Not Now,” Kunstraum B2, Leipzig, Germany (2003)
• “Habitos Suspendidos,” Fototeca, Havana Cuba (2003)
• “Hospitality,” Adobe Books, San Francisco, California (2003)
• “The Best Coast,” Portland (2003)
• “Gymnasium,” Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California (2003)
• “Officespace. Art on Site Two,” Tel Aviv, Israel (2003)
• “Photography-Video,” Monique Goldstrom Gallery, New York, New York (2003)
• “Intermediate Mechanisms,” Wolfson Gallery, Miami, Florida (2002)
• “Bay Area Now III,” Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California (2002)
• “On the Ball,” Buro Spors, Berlin, Germany (2002)
• “Strawberry & Violin,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California (2002)
• “Bay Area Award Show,” New Langton Arts, San Francisco, California (2002)
• “2:12,” San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, California (2002)
• “Visiones Ocultas,” Centro Alfredo Lam, Havana, Cuba (2002)
• Video Festival, Arizona State University Museum, Phoenix, Arizona (2002)
• “Muestra Copyright,” Centro Cultural de España, Havana, Cuba (2002)
• “Narrative Removed,” The Lab, San Francisco, California (2001)
• “The World is a Theatre,” Refusalon Gallery, San Francisco, California (2001)
• “Action Documents,” Delgado Fine Art Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana (2001)
• “Portable Beach Head,” Exploratorium, San Francisco, California (2001)
• “Paladar,” Seven Havana Bieniel, Havana Cuba (2000)
• “Open house. Art on site one,” San Francisco, California (2000)

Felipe Dulzaides and New Langton Arts

In February, artist Felipe Dulzaides installed two more works as part of his Double Take A Billboard Project, an ongoing public art project to be mounted on eight billboards throughout San Francisco over the course of a year.  Dulzaides, collaborating with New Langton Arts and city developer David Prowler, draws attention to incidental urban landscapes by enlarging a particular view or aspect of a site and displaying it on a nearby billboard.  Five billboards have been produced as of March 2005 and each on view for a month or more.  Three current sites are:  Valencia Street at 22nd; Main Street at Folsom; and Turk Street at Hyde.  Visit www.newlangtonarts.org for color images and project updates.

Valencia Street at 22nd

Main Street at Folsom

Turk Street at Hyde